May 12, 2023 – National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) – Racing Louisville FC News Release
Racing Louisville’s hunt for a breakthrough win ended Friday night, with the Louisvillians celebrating an emphatic 3-0 victory over the visiting Chicago Red Stars at Lynn Family Stadium.
Savannah DeMelo and Wang Shuang converted penalties in the first half and Parker Goins provided an insurance goal in the 89th minute to give Racing its first win of the 2023 campaign and its largest margin of victory at home since joining the NWSL in 2021.
“We’ve been up, we’ve been down, tied a lot of games – now we finally did it,” said defender Carson Pickett. “That was the belief we need. We needed those three points to give us belief for the next games. We just needed to get over that hump of finishing games strong.”
Racing (1-2-4, 7 points) arrived at Friday’s match hungry for a win after twice taking 2-0 leads in first halves of games earlier this year – only to concede two second-half goals and settle for draws. The third time it happened was the charm.
In the 35th minute, DeMelo’s penalty banged off the post, but it bounced into the goal off the back of Chicago goalkeeper and U.S. Women’s National Team star Alyssa Naeher for an own goal.
Five minutes into added time in the first half, Wang Shuang slotted home a second penalty, scoring her first regular-season goal for Racing and becoming the first Chinese player to score in NWSL history.
This time, Louisville made sure to keep its foot on the gas pedal with the 2-0 halftime lead, repeatedly pushing for goal No. 3 in the second half. Wang Shuang rattled the crossbar from 16 yards out and Paige Monaghan’s free header off a set piece required a goal-line stop from Naeher.
In the game’s waning moments, Goins scored her first professional goal, collecting a loose ball off teammate Thembi Kgatlana’s dribble and knocking her shot in off the far post.
Racing put 11 shots on target and hit the woodwork twice, forcing Naeher into nine saves. Louisville created five big scoring chances, per Opta stats. It was another impressive offensive performance, and this time, DeMelo said, it was “a team win.”
“Every player performed today,” DeMelo said. “Everyone contributed today. That’s the difference. That’s what we’re going to need going forward.”
The emotion of the win showed through at the final whistle. Pickett sprinted to captain Jaelin Howell, who pumped her fists. The team sprayed each other with water in the post-match group talk.
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